Went to check my coolant with the winter tester, and noticed dark fluid in the overflow bottle.
First thought was "oh crap, oil in the coolant".
Checked oil, was fine.
Pulled a sample out of the bottle....................red. Red??? Transmission fluid.

Sooooo, how the he77, does tranny fluid get to the coolant bottle?
Checked the radiator, and it had a few bubbles of red at the top.

Any ideas? Can a radiator go bad this way?

Jeep runs fine btw.

 

Transmission line runs to the radiator and if the radiator cracks internally the fluids can mix.

 

Yep, new radiator needed provided that it is indeed auto fluid. You should sort it out before it damages your transmission.

 

check the trans fluid immediately, if it is at all creamy, dont drive it again until you have replaced the radiator, as the trans cooler has split

coolant in the trans will ruin it in a very short time indeed

 

IIRC, the Nissan SUVs (Pathfinder/XTerra) are notorious for this.

 

Isn't it fun?

 

Well, got my new radiator , and it looks good.......except.......
On the old rad the lower trans hose screws into the radiator, just like the top.
On the new rad its got an extruded 90 degree pipe coming out of it.
Ive owned this Jeep for over 15 years, so im pretty sure its all original. Ive never replaced those hoses.
Can this 90 fitting be removed?
Or is this for a different year Cherokee? Mines a 97, i ordered it for a 97.
Or do i need a trans hose to fit? UGH

 

It looks like it can be removed but I have no experience replacing one of these radiators.

 

As far as I was aware, the 90 bend should be on them all. It will unscrew but you'd have to hope that the new rad uses the same thread size. Only one way to find out really.

 

If you look at the ends of your trans cooler lines, I bet you'll find those same fittings still hanging on the hoses. The trans cooler hoses slip onto the fittings on your new radiator, and are held by hose clamps. I replaced my radiator about 2 months ago, and I over-disassembled the trans cooler lines. I disconnected the trans cooler lines by unthreading the fittings from the radiator rather than pulling the hoses off the fittings. Might you have done the same thing? With radiator in the vehicle, dealing with hoses onto fittings seems to be less of a PITA than threaded fittings into radiator.

 

Apologies... I think I got my lines mixed up. Been playing with too many lines on a prior-owner-messed-with cooling system. Trans cooler lines may be the internal-spring disconnect type, and need a push tool to remove. But the point of the fittings still hanging on the lines is valid. Your choice if you want to remove the lines from the old fittings, install new radiator with fittings on, then push lines onto fittings, OR remove fittings from new radiator, install radiator, and then try to thread on the old fittings with lines attached.